1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to communications and more specifically to conference calls and similar communications.
2. Introduction
When a user is invited to a conference call or creates a conference call, the user receives a set of information, such as a telephone number and access code or a web conference link, to join the conference. When the time of the conference arrives, the user and the other invited parties must first locate the conference dial-in or other information to join the conference. Often the user further requires access to additional resources such as documents, spreadsheets, contact information, or To Do lists for the conference. Often searching for the correct resources takes time and distracts the user from effectively participating in the conference while tracking down the right documents or information. Alternatively, conference participants can spend significant amounts of time preparing for the conference, including remembering and tracking down the right documents or information. This leads to much wasted time and lost worker efficiency.
One solution to this approach is to email out attachments with a conference call invitation, but that introduces multiple problems of version control, overly large email attachments, differing sets of documents for different individuals on the conference call, and other problems. Another approach is to force users to input required information in a structured way, but in reality, people still often put all these information in unstructured plain text. These approaches are not time effective and/or introduce additional problems taking away from the efficiency and ease of use of a conference call.